Snapped by a member of the 16th Infantry Regiment towards the tail end of the war near Falkenau, Czechoslovakia, the following pair of photos gives a brief glimpse of some of the encounters made by US infantry troops during the closing period of the war. In this instance, a German soldier dressed in civilian garb was shot in the leg with an M1 while attempting to run away from the concentration camp near Falkenau. Luckily for him, a medic is standing in the left center of the image.

I found your post regarding the Museum at Sokolov (formerly Falkenau). My father Warrant Officer V. J. (Smoky) Hibbens (RAAF 400712) was on the infamous Death March at the end of WWII down through Czechoslovakia. I have a letter from a German Lance Corporal Ernst Rudek who was a guard at Stalag VIIIB and who accompanied my father and his men on this March (written in 1947) – who expressed his sadness at leaving my father at the Tile Works at Falkenau when there was a change of guard. There is very little information regarding this particular March and I was wondering if the Museum at Sokolov would have any information on it. All I know was that my father was at a Sugar Beet Factory (Arbietzkommando E600 at Glogowek) as Pvt. Douglas Simpson (he swapped IDs so he could get out on working parties to escape) when the rest of the RAAF POWs were marched out of Stalag VIIIB on 21st January 1945 – so he was marched south through Czechoslovakia. He reported on the 174 Allied POWs who were in a shocking condition when evacuated from the Terezen Fortress at Teresienstadt in his War Crimes Questionnaire. So I know he was there in early April. My father did successfully escape on 16th April from the Death March and was picked up by the Czech Partisans and taken to Kydne (formerly Neugedyne) where he was hidden and nursed back to health until the Americans came through and liberated the town on 29th April. But how did he get there? What was the route his March took? And when and where did he finally escape?

Many thanks Brennan. I have also just written to three people at the Central Prisoner-of-War Museum at Lambinowice (on the site of Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf Poland) – one email came back undeliverable – but maybe one of the others will get through. I do plan to visit Lamsdorf in the next 12 months and then trace my father’s footsteps down through Czechoslovakia to Kydne. My grandparents sponsored a young married couple that my farther met there and they immigrated to Australia after the war. So there are strong connections for many reasons.